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Australian authorities will advise the public on how to reduce their exposure to electromagnetic fields from common household appliances like fridges and clock radios, in line with precautionary moves internationally.

But some say Australia should go further, pointing to some countries that have set targets to reduce such exposure.

While there is no absolute proof that such fields cause disease, there have been some puzzling links.

Most important is a link between ELF fields from powerlines and childhood leukaemia, which has persisted for some time. But scientists still don't know how such fields could cause ill health.

This month a UK government inquiry recommended a moratorium on building new homes and schools within 60 metres of existing high-voltage overhead powerlines.

The inquiry also called on the government to consider ELF field exposure when planning new homes and schools.

ARPANSA says it is taking a precautionary approach with its new recommendations.

"I think there will be a recommendation to reduce exposure where it can be done easily at low cost, no cost," says the agency's Dr Lindsay Martin.

ARPANSA plans to give people information on what they can do around the home to reduce their exposure from appliances and electricity meter boxes.

He says the agency will also increase the number of special meters for the public to hire and check their household exposure.

"From most household appliances [fields] drop away quite quickly but from long runs of wiring they don't drop off so quickly and from street wiring they drop off even less quickly," says Martin.

He says the most common highest everyday exposure is around 300 milligauss, say right next to the microwave oven.

But ARPANSA's exposure limit, expected to be 3000 milligaus, will be based on the proven health effects of much stronger ELF fields, says Martin, and the agency will not set lower precautionary limits.

This is a position supported by the World Health Organization (WHO), which last month issued a report on the health effects of ELF fields.

In the report Extremely low frequency fields, it argues against low "arbitrary" exposure levels in the name of precaution.

Yet some countries have already set precautionary targets to reduce exposure to everyday ELF fields.

According to John Lincoln, ARPANSA's community representative helping to develop Australia's new exposure recommendations, Switzerland and Italy have both set targets to reduce public ELF field exposure to 10 milligauss.

"Imagine a country like Switzerland with all their electric railways. It's quite a problem. But they've actually looked at rewiring the overheads to reduce the fields," says Lincoln, an electrical engineer who measures fields in homes and workplaces.

"I don't know why we can't match what Switzerland is doing. It would be easier in Australia than it would be in Switzerland."

Lincoln says the Netherlands is also constructing a 25 kilometre high-voltage powerline that will only emit 4 milligauss on the ground, whereas such lines normally emit anything up to 120 milligauss.

WHO recommends further research

The WHO report also recommends further research on sources of exposure to low-level fields and their link to conditions including some cancers, depression, suicide, reproductive problems, developmental disorders, immunological changes and neurological disease.

But it says the evidence linking fields to cardiovascular disease or breast cancer is "sufficient to give confidence that magnetic fields do not cause the disease".